Southern Grenadines Member of Parliament Terrance Ollivierre claims that a sewage treatment plant is to be constructed on the compound of the Canouan Government School and the Canouan Secondary School are “totally erroneous and false” said an angry Edwin Snagg.
In a call to the New Democratic Party (NDP) New Times radio programme today, Ollivierre claimed that he carried out an investigation which revealed certain information. He told guest Daniel Cummings and listeners:
“They want to move the sewage system form there [Tamarind Beach Hotel] and take it to part of the compound where you have the Canouan Government and Canouan Secondary schools.”
“Now I don’t know who came up with such a grand idea but something has to be wrong. Whoever thought about that move and that it will be the best thing…these people got to be crazy and not from this world and not from this land.”
“you want to move a sewage system which belongs to a hotel development and take it to part of the compound of the school?”
The MP who has been representing the constituency since 2001 added that his investigation revealed that the government may have acquired private property to move the pipes from the hotel development up to the school.
“They refused to sell… and you compulsory acquired the land in order for a road to be built,” the MP charged.
However, speaking this afternoon on WEFM Shake Up programme, Director of Grenadines Affairs and ULP candidate for the Southern Grenadines Edwin Snagg had a different version of the ‘facts’:
“With all things we must be factual, and if you do not have the facts, do not make public utterances.”
“There are no lines from anywhere to the compound or the complex where the secondary school and primary school are and that’s totally wrong.”
He said further that if there is any intention by anyone to carry out such activity of constructing a sewage system anywhere, such a request must go through the Division of Planning, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Transport and Works.
However, he noted that there is no such idea to move the sewage system line to any school compound.
“Does that sound like something that is rational? Let us be factual and realistic.”
“You this period, I does call it the stupid period, elections are due within a short period of time and you hear all sort of statements being made by persons whether those statements are factual yes or no.”
“No political entity who is in charge of the administration of the State will allow any private entity to engage in pumping such material of waste on a compound on which a school is housed.”
At the same time Snagg was making these comments, his opposite number Terrance Ollivierre was asking whether the government had acquired the private land close to the school to give to a private developer and whether such a project will proceed on the school compound.
Former General Manager of the CWSA Daniel Cummings said the implication of such a move on a school compound would create odour and other environmental problems for students and residents of the community
